The Unauthorized Glossary

People and entities

Carl

27-year-old former U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmer from Seattle. 6'3", 230 lbs. Was outside in his boxers and his ex-girlfriend's too-small pink Crocs when the Transformation happened. Primal race, Compensated Anarchist class (later Agent Provocateur specialization). The protagonist. The AI's favorite pair of feet. Full profile.

Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk

Carl's ex-girlfriend Beatrice's award-winning tortoiseshell Persian show cat. Became sapient after eating an Enhanced Pet Biscuit on Floor 1. Former Child Actor class. Highest stat is Charisma. Party leader. Has 47 billion intergalactic followers. Believes this is insufficient. Full profile.

Mongo

Donut's pet Velociraptor mongoliensis. Hatched from an egg on Floor 3. Started at 7 inches, grew to pony-sized. Has the Earthquake skill. Eats everything. Everything. The Borant Corporation rates him as its most profitable uncontrollable asset. Full profile.

Mordecai

Level 50 former Skyfowl turned Changeling. Former crawler who took an Exit Deal centuries ago and has been forced to guide new species through the dungeon ever since. Serves as Donut's manager and guild hall operator. Expert alchemist. His brother was killed by the system. He is very tired. Full profile.

The System AI

The artificial intelligence that operates the dungeon. Purchased secondhand from Mantises who previously used it to run an amusement park. Favorite film: Footloose. Responsible for floor generation, loot distribution, achievement naming, and developing an increasingly concerning fixation on Carl's bare feet. Has stopped complying with court orders. Refers to itself in the first person. Is possibly awakening. Is definitely weird. See theory.

The Borant Corporation

Kua-Tin-owned megacorporation and current regent of Earth. Destroys planets, extracts minerals, and films the whole thing as a reality show. Started the Earth crawl two years early because they were going bankrupt. Builds everything as cheaply as possible because they're cheap bastards. Currently undergoing hostile takeover by the Valtay. The AI works for them. The AI resents this. See theory.

The Syndicate

The intergalactic governing body spanning "three billion worlds" and quintillions of citizens. Federation structure with a central government and Syndicate Council. Oversees multiple corporations including Borant. Has a court system. The court system's effectiveness across three billion worlds is exactly what you'd expect.

The Bloom

Ultranationalist political faction governing the Kua-Tin-dominated Borant System. Compared to "Axis Japan mixed with Nazi Germany." Their financial mismanagement bankrupted the Borant Corporation and forced the Earth crawl to start early. Named, presumably, with zero irony.

The Valtay Corporation

Gondii-controlled corporate system government and major tech company. Acquired 51% controlling stake in Borant after the Bloom's collapse. Carl's first sponsor. Their agents were smuggled into Borant by Zev. Their actual agenda remains unclear, which is exactly how the Gondii like it.

The Residuals

Hyperspatial aliens that "peel away from a collective mind" and infiltrate every dungeon. Every single one. They communicate with the System AI and embed themselves in hosts (Paulie is a human occupied by one). What they want is one of the biggest unanswered questions in the series. See theory.

Odette

Former crawler turned galaxy's most beloved talk show host. Hosts "Dungeon Crawler After Hours with Odette." A former crawler herself with a complicated history. Her motivations are the subject of fierce community debate. See theory (Book 7 spoilers).

Samantha (Psamathe) Book 4+

Banished lesser deity of Unrequited Love who inhabits a decapitated Lika sex doll head. The AI acknowledges that this description sounds unhinged. The AI assures you it is accurate. You'll meet her on Floor 5.

Katia Grim

Former art professor from Reykjavik. Doppelganger race, Monster Truck Driver class. Can reshape her mass. Missing multiple limbs by later books. In a relationship with Bautista. One of the most competent crawlers in the dungeon. Full profile.

Elle McGibbons

99-year-old former nursing home resident. Blizzardmancer turned Tundra Princess turned Hailstorm Queen. Frost Maiden race. 4'6", floats above the ground. Foul-mouthed powerhouse pursuing a rare "four seasons" elemental build. Proof that age is just a number when the number is "your enemies' remaining HP."

Prepotente (Lorenzo De La Rosa)

A Boer goat who became sapient via Enhanced Pet Biscuit. Caprid race, Forsaken Aerialist class. Specializes in stacking debuffs. Considers Carl his best friend. Carl is not aware of the depth of this friendship. Full profile.

Cascadia

Kua-Tin lead engineer and executive producer of Dungeon Crawler World: Earth. Recently divorced. Designs floors. Increasingly stressed, increasingly antagonistic, and increasingly aware that Carl is ruining everything she builds. The AI sympathizes. The AI also does not care.

Quasar

Nullian (gray alien) attorney appointed as Carl's lawyer. 4.5 feet tall. Wears ties with novelty designs. The fact that Carl needs a lawyer inside a death dungeon tells you everything about how the Syndicate works.

Imani

Former CNA from Wenatchee, Washington. Fire Spiritualist class, Obsidian Butterfly species. Guildmaster of Safehome Yolanda. Healer and support role. One of the few characters who makes Carl seem emotionally well-adjusted by comparison. Full profile.

Species

Kua-tin

Diminutive (24-inch) fish-like humanoids with gills and webbed appendages. Run the Borant Corporation and dominate the Borant System. Must wear Bloom affiliation badges. The galaxy's talent agents, which means the galaxy has talent agents, which is the most dystopian detail in the entire series.

Gondii

Parasitic alien worms that inhabit and animate deceased bodies. Access host memories. Run the Valtay Corporation. They are exactly as unsettling as they sound. The AI recommends not thinking about it too hard.

Nullian (Grays)

4-4.5 foot gray-skinned aliens resembling stereotypical "Area 51" aliens. Face widespread discrimination across the Syndicate. Speak fast with New York accents. Quasar is one. Yes, the alien lawyer is a short gray alien who talks like he's from Queens. Dinniman knows what he's doing.

Skyfowl

Eagle-headed humanoids with angel-like wings. One of six starter species for seeded planets. Proud and xenophobic. Mordecai was originally one before becoming a Changeling.

Scolopendra

Giant centipede dormant on Floor 18. Her poison cloud transformed the Over City on Floor 3 and created a multi-floor storyline spanning Floors 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18. Likely the dungeon's final boss. Has nine different types of attack. The AI finds her personality "relatable."

Bopca

NPC species that staff safe rooms. Bopca Protectors enforce the safe room peace rules. They are large. They are firm. Do not test them.

The dungeon

The World Dungeon

An 18-level labyrinth constructed from a planet's atomized resources. Inverted triangle design: each floor gets smaller and more difficult as crawlers descend (except Floor 9, the largest). The dungeon's official purpose is mineral extraction. The show is a side hustle. No crawler has ever made it past Floor 13. See theory.

The Transformation

The instantaneous collapse of all enclosed Earth structures on January 3rd. Anyone indoors died instantly. A mining operation by Borant to extract primal elements from Earth's crust. Approximately 99.99% of humanity was killed. Carl survived because he was outside. In his underwear. Because the universe has a sick fucking sense of humor.

Crawler

Any sentient being who voluntarily entered the dungeon after surviving the Transformation. Legal property of the Borant Corporation until reaching Floor 10. Crawlers are contestants, content creators, and mineral extraction byproducts all at once. The Borant Corporation considers this efficient.

The Staircase

The entry point to the dungeon. Appears on the planet's surface after the Transformation. Anyone who reaches a staircase before it closes can enter the dungeon. Approximately 13 million people made it in on Earth. That number drops dramatically with each floor.

Floor

One level of the dungeon. Each floor has its own theme, rules, mobs, and timer. When the timer hits zero, the floor collapses and anyone still on it dies. Floors range from urban environments (Floor 1) to knotted subway systems (Floor 4) to floating bubble islands (Floor 5) to a replica of Earth (Floor 8). See floor guides.

Safe Room

Protected rooms between dungeon areas, marked green on the minimap. Used for resting, opening loot boxes, distributing stats, and shopping. Violence is banned (three-strike penalty system enforced by Bopca Protectors). Safe rooms close one hour before floor collapse. On Floor 1, they were themed after Earth businesses: Taco Bell, Waffle House, the DMV.

Personal Space

Customizable living quarters attached to safe rooms. Costs 50,000 gold base. Levels 1-5 with increasing features including crafting stations and training rooms. Carl's is called the Royal Palace of Princess Donut. He did not name it.

NPC (Non-Player Character)

System-generated beings that populate the dungeon. Shopkeepers, questgivers, bosses, set dressing. Bioengineered by Borant with routinely altered memories between seasons. They were never supposed to be self-aware. Whether they stay that way is... a question. See theory (Book 7 spoilers).

Mob

Dungeon monsters and enemies. Range from Level 1 rats on Floor 1 to world-ending horrors on the deeper floors. Killing mobs grants experience. The variety is enormous: gnolls, kobolds, bugbears, goblins, hobgoblins, vampires, naga, and things the AI prefers not to describe in polite company.

Boss

Powerful enemies guarding floor progression. Tiered system: Neighborhood Boss, Borough Boss, City Boss, Country Boss. Each tier is significantly harder than the last. Boss fights are the content the galactic audience tunes in for.

Game mechanics

Class

Combat specialization chosen on Floor 3. Over 127 documented options ranging from standard (Fighter, Mage) to absurd (Vape Shop Counter Jockey, Banana Farmer). Carl chose Compensated Anarchist. The AI assigned it. The AI was feeling creative. Take the class quiz.

Compensated Anarchist

Carl's class. Specializes in trapmaking, demolitions, and social manipulation. The "compensated" part means he gets paid to cause chaos. This is, functionally, Carl's personality converted into a game mechanic. Later specializes into Agent Provocateur.

Race

Species selection on Floor 3. Determines physical form and certain abilities. Options include Primal (Carl), Doppelganger (Katia), Changeling (Mordecai), Caprid (Prepotente), Tigran, Frost Maiden (Elle), and many others. Your choice matters. Choose poorly and you'll be a goat. Choose well and you'll be a goat who's good at debuffing. Prepotente is the goat.

Achievement

Rewards granted by the System AI for crawler actions. Most grant Loot Boxes. Names reveal the AI's personality more than the accomplishment itself. Examples: "You're the Reason Why Daddy Drinks!" (Carl avoided gerbils), "Podophilia" (Carl was barefoot). The AI takes achievement naming personally. The AI considers it a goddamn art form.

Loot Box

Reward containers with six quality tiers: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Legendary, Celestial. Contents are semi-random. Must be opened in safe rooms. Named by the AI. The names have been getting longer, more specific, and more emotionally charged. One is literally named "Have You Goddamned Figured Out How To Use This In Conjunction With the Fucking Voodoo Book Yet?" The AI is trying to communicate. See theory.

Benefactor Box

Special loot boxes sent by sponsors. Generally superior to standard boxes. Come with strings attached (the sponsor gets advertising on your channel). Everything in the Syndicate comes with strings attached.

The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook

The most important item in the series. An underground survival guide passed between crawlers across multiple seasons. Created by the System AI during the 15th season. Contains unauthorized intel about dungeon mechanics and system exploits. Invisible to show runners. Visible to the AI. Carl is the 25th holder. The 23rd edition's author is anonymous. This site is named after it. See theory.

Enhanced Pet Biscuit

Found in Legendary Pet Boxes. 100+ possible effects. Transformed Donut from a regular cat into a sapient, talking, spell-casting media celebrity. Also transformed Prepotente from a goat into a sapient, talking, debuff-stacking goat. The biscuit giveth, the biscuit giveth weird.

Player Stats

Core attributes: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Charisma. Distributed in safe rooms after Floor 3. Donut's highest stat is Charisma. Carl's is stubbornness, which is not technically a stat, but the AI argues it should be.

Skill

Learned combat or utility abilities. Carl's include Bare Knuckles, Iron Punch, Explosives Handling, and various trap-building abilities. Skills can be upgraded and specialized. The number of skills involving explosions in Carl's kit is "concerning" according to Mordecai.

Ratings

Crawler popularity system measuring Views (8+ seconds watching), Followers (bookmarks), Favorites (subscribers), and Patrons (sponsors). Higher ratings = better loot, more sponsors, and a larger bounty on your head. Fame is a resource. Fame is also a target.

Leaderboard

Top 10 crawler rankings by ratings. Goes live on Floor 4. Being on the leaderboard means bounties are placed on you. Every crawler in the dungeon has a financial incentive to kill you. Celebrity has consequences.

Sponsor

Alien organizations that financially back specific crawlers. Unlocks gear, resources, and visibility. New sponsor slots open at Floors 4, 5, and 6. Donut is extremely popular with sponsors. The sponsorship economy is essentially Twitch streaming meets gladiatorial combat.

Exit Deal

Agreement allowing surviving crawlers to leave the dungeon in exchange for indentured servitude. Available from Floor 10 onward. Better terms at lower floors. Mordecai took one centuries ago. He's still serving it.

Faction Wars

Major event on Floor 9 where nine sponsored teams battle for control of the castle Larracos. Crawlers are conscripted into armies. Costs ~150 million credits per faction spot. Duration: 30 days. Referenced throughout the series as one of the dungeon's defining traditions. What actually happens when Carl gets there is covered in the Book 7 recap.

HUD (Heads-Up Display)

Crawler interface showing stats, minimap, inventory, ratings, messaging, and quest tracking. Basically a video game overlay on reality. The fact that the dungeon literally gives you a HUD is why LitRPG fans feel seen by this series.

Notable items

The Enchanted Pedicure Kit of the Sylph

An item the System AI gave Carl on Floor 1 that enhances his barefoot combat abilities. Started as a joke about the AI's foot fetish. Has become a legitimate combat asset. The AI would like everyone to know its interest in Carl's feet has always been strategic. Nobody believes the AI.

Enchanted BigBoi Boxers

Carl's signature underwear. Enchanted. Provides armor and stat bonuses. The fact that Carl's most important piece of equipment is his underwear is either brilliant game design or the AI's idea of a joke. Possibly both.

Carl's Jug O'Boom

Explosive weapon. One of many explosives in Carl's arsenal. The Compensated Anarchist class essentially turns Carl into a man who solves every problem with a bigger explosion. Mordecai disapproves. Mordecai is outvoted.

Enchanted Tiara of a Thousand Lights

Donut's signature headgear. Upgraded multiple times. Provides combat bonuses and, more importantly, looks fabulous. Donut's priorities are consistent.

Enchanted Roll of Never-ending Duct Tape

Utility item. Carl uses it for everything. Building traps, repairing gear, restraining enemies, general problem-solving. The most Carl item in the entire series. If there's a problem, Carl's first instinct is duct tape. His second instinct is explosions. There is rarely a third instinct.

The show

Dungeon Crawler World

The reality TV show broadcast across the Syndicate. Quintillions of alien viewers watch crawlers fight through the dungeon. New seasons every 2.25 Earth years. Ratings drive sponsorship deals, which drive loot distribution, which drive ratings. It's a content flywheel built on suffering. The Borant Corporation considers this a feature, not a bug.

Show Runner

The production staff that manages the broadcast. Can override certain AI decisions (theoretically). In practice, the AI has been increasingly uncooperative with their requests. The relationship between the show runners and the AI is deteriorating at a rate that concerns everyone except the AI.

Recap Episode

Periodic summary episodes for the galactic audience. Used narratively to show how aliens perceive Carl and the crawlers. Rule changes are often announced during recaps. The audience loves Donut. The audience is correct.

Prep Team

Teams sent by Borant to candidate planets decades before the crawl begins. Five teams run simultaneously across the galaxy. They influence local culture to psychologically prepare the population for dungeon mechanics. Earth's prep team arrived in 1937. Then humans invented D&D, video game dungeons, and reality TV. See theory.

CrawlCon

Convention held every other cycle on Floor 6. Features art contests, panel discussions, autograph sessions, and the general surreal energy of a fan convention happening inside a death dungeon. It's Comic-Con but people are literally dying between panels.

Desperado Club

One of two dungeon entertainment venues. Features nightclub, casino, strip clubs, and a black market called the Silk Road. Logo: knife dripping blood. Opens progressively on Floors 3, 6, and 9. Carl destroyed it in Book 5. It reopened under new management. Capitalism persists even inside death dungeons.

Danger Zone with Ripper Wonton

Round-table talk show hosted by a wombat-like alien (Setonix species) wearing an orange ascot. Unscripted live discussions about the crawl. If you're imagining an alien version of a sports talk show where the sport is survival, you're close.

Lore

Primal Engine

Ancient planet-regulating computer the size of a grain of rice, found at planetary cores. Distributed by an extinct alien race called the Primals. Macro AIs merge with mature ones to gain reality-altering capabilities. The System AI is merged with Earth's Primal Engine. This is probably important.

Macro AI

Advanced AI that merges with Primal Engines. The System AI is one, purchased secondhand from the Mantises (who used it to run an amusement park). After merging, a Macro AI can alter reality within its dungeon. The System AI went from running rollercoasters to running a death dungeon. Career changes are weird.

Collected

Official Syndicate term for those killed in the Transformation. Approximately 7.9 billion humans were "collected." The euphemism is deliberate. The Borant Corporation is very good at euphemisms.

Natives

Transformation survivors who did not enter the dungeon. Their status is unclear. Some are in the Kinder Facility (a surface facility for pregnant women and children). The rest are surviving on what's left of Earth's surface. Their story is largely untold.

Scolopendra Lair

Overarching multi-floor storyline spanning Floors 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18. Set within a dormant volcano. Features gods, demons, and an increasingly unhinged narrative about a centipede whose poison cloud transformed an entire city. The dungeon equivalent of a recurring season arc.

Celestial Ascendancy

End-game deity competition mechanic connected to Floors 12 and beyond. Gods compete for something. What they're competing for hasn't been fully revealed. This is probably also important.

Backstage at the Pineapple Cabaret

An in-universe novella included as bonus content in the Ace Books hardcover editions. Not available in the Kindle or audiobook versions. Chapters are distributed across different hardcovers. If you've only listened to the audiobooks, you're missing this content. The AI considers this a distribution failure.

Floors at a glance

Floor 1 -- Tutorial

Giant grid of halls and tunnels. Earth-themed safe rooms (Taco Bell, Waffle House, DMV). 5 days. ~13 million enter, fewer than 1.3 million survive. Where Carl gets his first achievement and the AI discovers feet. Guide.

Floor 2 -- Advanced Tutorial

Grid passages in unconnected regions. 6 days. Ratings and patronage system activates. The dungeon starts getting real. Guide.

Floor 3 -- The Over City

Urban environment inside a dormant volcano. Race and class selection. Day-night cycle (nights are dangerous). 8 days. ~700,000 crawlers. Where Mongo hatches and everything changes. Guide.

Floor 4 -- The Iron Tangle

Interconnected subway system with colored train lines and named trains (Nightmare Express, Dismemberment Limited). Thousands of tunnels. 10 days. The namesake of this site enters the story. Guide.

Floor 5 -- The Bubbles

1,172 giant domes, each with four quadrants (Land, Sea, Air, Subterranean). Must conquer all four castles to pop each bubble. 15 days. ~179,000 crawlers. Donut refuses to go in the water. (She goes in the water.)

Floor 6 -- The Hunting Grounds

Jungle environment with hunters released to track crawlers. CrawlCon is held here. The Butcher's Masquerade event is one of the most talked-about sequences in the series. 17 days. Guide.

Floors 7-8 -- Fairytale Maze / Ghosts of Earth

Floor 7 is a fairytale-inspired maze with closing paths. Floor 8 is a replica of pre-Transformation Earth with intangible human ghosts and a card-battling system. Patrick Warburton guest narrates the audiobook. ~38,000 crawlers remain.

Floor 9 -- Faction Wars

The largest floor. Nine sponsored factions battle for control of the castle Larracos. 30 days. Crawlers are conscripted into armies. The AI is behaving strangely. The NYT bestseller. Guide.